Saturday, October 27, 2012

news round-up

MEMBERS of the anti-racist group, We Are Waltham Forest, London,
are calling for a ban on a planned march by the Islamophobic English Defence
League due to take place this Saturday, 27th October.

The EDL called the
march as a “rematch” after a previous march on 1st September, attended by a
meagre 200 supporters, was blocked by thousands local residents who occupied a
road junction on the planned route.

But the EDL will have
serious problems in staging the march in any case since last weekend 53 of
their leading members and supporters were arrested last Saturday and bailed on
charges of conspiracy to attack an east London mosque.

The bail conditions
forbid them to attend any marches in east London in the near future. If they
do, they will immediately be arrested.

Furthermore their
leader, Stephen Yaxley Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, is being held in
custody in Wandsworth prison on separate charges of assault and could be
extradited to the United States, where he is wanted to answer charges of
financial fraud. He has no prospect of release before January whatever happens.

The 53 were arrested
last Saturday when police, acting on intelligence, stopped several vehicles,
including at least one large removal van, on the M25 and M3 motorways. The men
were found to be carrying a selection of weapons and heading to a “spontaneous”
protest in Whitechapel, according to reports. Lennon was one of them.

It seems they has
chosen to “protest” that day on the assumption that police and anti-fascist
activists would be preoccupied with the big TUC march against austerity.

Earlier this month a
packed public meeting called by the We Are Waltham Forest campaign showed the
determination of local people drive the English Defence League out of the
borough for a second time.

Local MP Stella
Creasy called for renewed unity against the EDL, while London Assembly Member
Jennette Arnold declared there was “No place for the EDL in Walthamstow!”

Jennette spoke
movingly about her trip to Oslo, where people urged her to stop the EDL – the
organisation that gave inspiration to Norway’s fascist mass murderer Anders
Behring Breivik.

The meeting also
heard from local rabbi, Richard Jacobi and Irfan Akhtar of the Waltham Forest
Council of Mosques, who said the success of the mobilisation against the EDL
last month had given local Muslims the confidence to confront the EDL.

And Glenroy Watson
said his RMT rail union would do everything possible to stop the EDL using the
tube on 27th October – RMT members have previously taken action to ensure that
staff and members of the public are not endangered by the fascist thugs on the
tube and railways.

There would be “no
platform for EDL – literally as far as my industry is concerned”, he said.

But the chances of the EDL now being able to find enough
supporters on Saturday to make the march worthwhile are now greatly diminished
since the arrest of the 53 leading supporters and hopes are high that it will
not take place.

Meanwhile Lennon,
languishing in Wandsworth prison, is reported to be complaining that he is
“sharing a cell with Muslims on a wing full of Muslims screaming death threats
at him”, according to an online report by the British Freedom Party, from which
he recently resigned as a deputy chair.

Racism in football

THE CAMPAIGN, Show Racism the Red Card, (SRtRC) last week
issued a statement on actions by a number of black footballers who last week
refused to wear anti-racist T-shirts from the Kick It Out campaign.

One of them, Rio
Ferdinand, faces discipline from his team manager, Alex Fergusson, for this
refusal.

The players say they
were protesting at the inadequacy of the Kick It Out campaign and that wearing
the T-shirts was meaningless tokenism.

Certainly they
succeeded in drawing attention to a real problem, and the wearing of such
T-shirts to show support is indeed meaningless if it is not voluntary. And
football managers are deluded if they think that simply wearing a particular
T-shirt is all that needs to be done to address them problems of racism in
football.

SRtRC works with
50,000 young people each year in schools and at events at football clubs. It
says that without the support of players, its positive anti-racism message is
diminished.

The campaign says it
fully understands the anger of the Ferdinand family and Jason Roberts in
relation to the FA handling of the John Terry case. “Both Rio and Jason are
longstanding patrons of our campaign and are recognised in our Hall of Fame for
their work,” the statement says.

But the statement
points out that Kick It Out (KIO) is not a regulatory body and the problem lies
with the Football Association and other football authorities, who are
responsible for dealing with racist incidents or deciding on sanctions.

And it calls on the
protesting players to work with KIO and SRtRC (the two campaigns work closely
together) and the Professional Footballers’ Association to draw up a plan of
action to present to the footballing authorities and Government.

Pensioners to protest
at fuel poverty

THE GREATER London Pensioners’ Association has organised a
protest, “No More Deaths Frome Fuel Poverty”, to take place, beginning at noon,
in Westfield Stratford Shopping Centre in east London outside the upper level
entrance to Primark on Saturday 27th October.

According to the Fuel
Poverty Action campaign, 65 people died in Britain every day from illnesses
caused by cold homes.Campaigners say
the latest gas and electricity price rises will be a nail in many coffins.

Many of those who
died were pensioners and disabled people. As energy company prices – and
profits – soar, there will be many more deaths this year.

They say that if we
can’t afford to heat our homes we have a right to go into any warm building and
make ourselves at home!

We have the right to
warm up inside the offices of those driving fuel poverty: the Big Six energy
companies, the Government, landlords and letting agents.

We have the right
to warm up inside public spaces threatened by cuts including libraries and day
centres, which keep many people warm throughoutthe winter.

Pensioners from the
Greater London Pensioners’ Association will be asserting this right by coming
out of their cold homes and warming up inside the toasty Westfield Stratford
shopping centre.

They demand:

* That the Government reinstate the Winter Fuel Allowance in
full (this hasbeen cut by £50 for
those over 60 and £100 for those over 80.)

* That the energy companies reinvest in affordable, cleaner
and safer energy supplies and use their enormous profits to do so, instead of
putting the cost on to the consumer.

* That the Government acknowledge an entitlement of all
including the sick, disabled people, the elderly and families with young
children, to a well insulated, warm place to live in good repair.

Don’t sell Barnet

RESIDENTS of Barnet, north London, are alarmed at the
council’s plan known as the One Barnet Programme, to hand over nearly all its
public services to private for-profit companies.

They are calling for
an immediate stop to these measures until the issue is put to the electorate in
the form of a simple Yes or No referendum on the programme.

Their aim is to
collect 7000 signatures by the end of October 2012, with a view to submit it to
the full council meeting on 6th November, prior to the planned decision on
awarding the One Barnet contracts at the end of November.

This petition is also
promoted by the Barnet Labour Group in a joint forces effort to stop the One
Barnet and save our future in this borough.

They are calling for
as many signatures as possible to the petition, which can be reached on-line
at:

The campaign is
supported by a new film by acclaimed US director Charles Honderick that its
debut at London's Phoenix Cinema last Monday.

The film exposes the
risks involved in local government outsourcing. It shows how Barnet Council is
taking a billion pound gamble with taxpayer's money.

The film also
interviews residents of Barnet to reveal how the disabled, the elderly, local
business owners and ordinary members of the community are being ignored.

Parents with severely
disabled children talk about their experiences and how the council refuses to
provide suitable housing and care packages. They explain how outsourced care
provides charge as much as £1.20 for a cup of Nescafe in a church hall.

FBU warns that cuts endanger lives

THE FIRE Brigades Union has expressed grave concerns over
proposals by the London Fire Brigade to close 17 fire stations and slash around
600 jobs

The plans, which were
revealed in a leaked document, look set to be put before a meeting of the
London fire authority on 22nd November.

The brigade was told
by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to save £65 million over two years, and
senior managers have been working on proposals to meet that demand.

The FBU’s regional
secretary for London, Paul Embery, said: “These proposals present the biggest
threat to the London Fire Brigade since the days of the Luftwaffe and would
lead to the decimation of fire cover in London.

“The stations under
threat of closure have stood proudly for generations, protecting local
residents from bombs, fire and terrorism, yet Boris Johnson is about to hammer
a ‘For Sale’ sign on to their front doors.

“Such a huge cut
cannot be made without there being an impact on public safety, and we call on
Londoners to join with us in defending our fire service.”